


The Monster & the Old Man

by Finanigan



Category: Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-12
Updated: 2016-08-12
Packaged: 2018-08-08 09:01:29
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 597
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7751464
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Finanigan/pseuds/Finanigan
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sometimes, the void cannot be filled.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Monster & the Old Man

The Monster stared at the Old Man prostrated at his feet with anger and contempt. Despite the improbable victory he had just won against this stronger opponent, he was unable to feel the joy that usually accompanies his triumph. Unable even to be pleased with his success. Furious, the Monster sent his foot in the belly of the Old Man. Then again, again and again, quickly losing all restraint to surrender to rage. But nothing helped, and the Monster saw himself unable to touch the feelings which were fleeing him for so long now. In spite, he ceased his physical attacks and watched more carefully his victim.

The Old Man was disfigured. The outline of his right eye was so swollen that it had become barely discernable. As for the left eye, it was badly bloodshot, and the Monster wondered for a moment if it could still discern anything. The mouth was in a state as laborious as the eyes, dripping with blood, and the nose now only looked like a piece of ground meat planted in the middle of the face.

The Monster stared at the Old Man and felt nothing. Neither joy nor anger, neither disgust nor satisfaction. Desperate to have become so insensitive, the Monster abandoned his butcher work and walked away in silence.  
  
  
   "Why?" quavered the Old Man between two painful breaths.  
  


The Monster paused, ready to pass under the stone arch. He hesitated a moment between his need to leave and his desire to respond. Finally, he turned, his face impassive.

   
  "What do you think, old monk?"  
  


The Old Man groaned and put his hand to his chest. Groping, he reached the spot where the saber had entered, but the pain that followed was so atrocious that he abandoned the idea. In the end, he thought, it didn’t matter. He would probably die soon anyway. This thought, mixed with pain, dream a few tears from him, which rolled down his face, mingling with the blood before ending up in his beard. This proof of unfathomable pain suddenly revived the fury of the Monster.  
  


  "Do not Cry ! Don’t you dare cry," he shouted, approaching the Old Man again.

  "Why ? They could’ve send anyone, so why you?"

  "Because it was the simplest. You dropped your guard, and I won."

  "Why ?" asked again the Old Man, frankly crying this time. "Why you ?"

  "There's nothing else to say."  
  


The Monster turned to the entrance with a quick step and prepared to leave the place when the Old Man returned to the charge.  
  


  "Why you, Ben?"  
  


The Monster that was once named Ben Solo turned and looked one last time at the Old Man.  
  


  "To prove to you that you were wrong. You were wrong about me," he let go sadly. "You were all so wrong. I do not belong to the Light. Farewell, Luke."  
  


As the Monster finished his sentence, the face of Luke Skywalker fell on his chest. The Monster waited a few seconds and then, convinced that his Uncle was dead, asked the sidereal void he knew was waiting in him. Hoping to see it filled with the death of the last of his mentors, he felt it, contrariwise, grow sharply. A bitter laugh escaped his lips. Suddenly very tired, the Monster left the hut. On the outside, he listened carefully, hoping for a brief moment to hear the reactors of the Millenium Falcon, before remembering that she had ran away several hours ago. Unhurried, the Monster began the long walk toward his own ship, his steps leaving no print on the soggy ground.


End file.
